cargo-partner takes major steps towards “paperless office”
As part of cargo-partner’s comprehensive sustainability strategy aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of its organization, the transport and logistics provider has already made big strides in lowering paper consumption across its offices worldwide. Over the past several years, the company has digitalized and overhauled numerous business processes, ranging from air and sea freight operations up to invoicing and customs documentation.
Making air freight greener with electronic air waybills
Although the air freight industry still relies on paper-based communication for many processes, there is significant potential for reducing paper consumption by means of electronic air waybills (eAWBs). cargo-partner started the ongoing transition to eAWBs in 2015, with more and more countries switching to eAWBs every year. According to a worldwide report published by IATA, cargo-partner was able to increase its eAWB share by 26% for shipments from Asia and by 13% for shipments from Europe within 12 months.
Numerous local initiatives to reduce paper use
cargo-partner tracks its paper use across all centrally registered printers worldwide. Many country organizations have already reduced their paper consumption, for instance, by digitalizing customs clearance and invoicing processes and switching to electronic delivery orders (eDOs) and proofs of delivery (ePODs). The Hungarian branch of cargo-partner has reduced its paper use by 80% in sea freight and by 34% in air freight since 2018. In Singapore, cargo-partner has reduced paper printing by 30% over the last three years, while the Vietnam organization achieved a reduction of 15% over the same period. In Thailand, paper usage has been reduced by 25% in the past year.
In addition, the company has launched a comprehensive internal information campaign to increase environmental awareness. Sandra Zechmeister, Project Lead Sustainability at cargo-partner, states: “Employee awareness towards environmental impact plays a major part in global sustainability initiatives. Even small actions, like using two screens to compare documents instead of printing, can have a high impact on the overall paper consumption.”
Australia: paperless since day one thanks to CargoWise
Some newer branches, such as cargo-partner’s subsidiary in Australia, have even been paperless since day one. Founded in Melbourne in 2019, the Australian branch of cargo-partner has been working with logistics execution software CargoWise from the start, acting as a pilot program for the consequent CargoWise rollout across the global organization. The Australian team uses the digital platform for all transport management and communication, eliminating the need to print out job files, invoices, pre-alerts and the like – with the sole exception of documents which are legally required in printed form.
Digitalization is key in making paperless offices a reality
Switching from paper to digitalized documentation not only reduces cargo-partner’s environmental footprint, but also serves to make operations more efficient and less prone to errors. Sandra Zechmeister explains: “Digitalizing our business processes is key to enhancing our data quality and streamlining our collaboration with customers and partners. Our supply chain management platform SPOT has played an essential role in increasing data accuracy, and the ongoing rollout of CargoWise is further helping us to advance our digitalization efforts and boost customer satisfaction. At the same time, we can leverage digitalization to reduce the consumption of paper and other resources and enhance process efficiency to the benefit of all involved parties.”
cargo-partner will continue to work on finding ways to minimize its environmental impact and help all stakeholders to make their operations more sustainable.